6-Year-Old Boy Finds Sunken 'Treasure Chest', Helps Solve 8-Year-Old Mystery

May 22, 2020

A 6-year-old boy helped crack a robbery case when he reeled in a safe from the bottom of a South Carolina lake.

Knox Brewer / Credit: Catherine Brewer / AP

Finding buried treasure is every kid's dream. It didn't take long for Knox Brewer to strike gold.

Knox took up magnet fishing a few weeks ago after watching a video on YouTube. Magnet fishing is where people hunt for metal objects underwater using a strong magnet.

His parents, Jonathan and Catherine Brewer, hoped it would be a healthy hobby and rewarding experience during the coronavirus pandemic.

Knox was out with his family at Whitney Lake this month when the magnet attached to his line stuck to something heavy in the mud below.

With the help of a nearby stranger, they brought up a locked metal safe. When they pried it open, they found several items inside — jewelry, credit cards and a checkbook.

"I knew the right thing to do was go ahead and call the local authorities, get them involved and try to solve this mystery," Mr. Brewer told ABC 4 News. "It was also a great opportunity to show Knox what we are to do when something like this happens."

As it turned out, the safe belonged to a neighbor, a woman they tracked down just across the street. She said the safe was stolen from her home eight years ago. It's been a mystery ever since.

It was a rewarding experience for Knox — in more ways than one.

"The first thing that she did was just kneel down, hug Knox and thanked him and thanked him for bringing that closure to her," Mr. Brewer said. "He himself wants to one day become a police officer and so he got a lot of fun out of them coming out and investigating, asking questions and get to the source."